NCAA power play may benefit Rutgers

By MARY DIDUCH, CHRIS ISEMAN and J.P. PELZMAN

Staff Writers |

The Record

As Rutgers University prepares to start its first season in the Big Ten athletic conference – one of the five largest conferences in college sports – the National Collegiate Athletic Association on Thursday overwhelmingly approved an overhaul of its governing structure, giving more power to those select schools.

AP file photo

Julie Hermann listens during a news conference where she was introduced as the new athletic director at Rutgers University on May 15, 2013.

The NCAA’s Division I board of directors, in a 16-2 vote, restructured how schools and conferences will be governed. The legislation also proposes changes that could pave the way for more money to be funneled into college sports and change how student-athletes are recruited and managed.

“This is a significant first step toward our ability to adapt the collegiate model to the changing times,” Rutgers Athletic Director Julie Hermann said in a statement. “Presidents, athletic directors and faculty athletic representatives now get to roll up our sleeves and do the deep dive required to develop 21st-century best practices for the student-athletes we serve.”

The changes come at a time when calls are getting louder for student-athletes to reap more financial benefits from the major money-making sports programs, when some conference commissioners are suggesting that their organizations might drop out of the NCAA and when the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that football players at Northwestern University can form a union.

“This is a seminal moment in the history of intercollegiate sports,” said Paul Finebaum of ESPN, whose book “My Conference Can Beat Your Conference: Why the SEC Still Rules College Football” was published this week. “The NCAA has become a shell of its former self.”

The legislation passed Thursday outlines 11 “areas of autonomy” in which the conferences can make rules, among them athletes’ meals and nutrition plans, off-season practice times, scholarship and financial aid, and miscellaneous expenses for recruiting and family campus visits.

Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said in a statement that the vote will start the process of addressing numerous student-athlete issues.

“The new governance structure preserves the many traditions of Division I athletics while directly impacting all student-athletes competing at that level who will benefit from improved academic, health and safety initiatives resulting from the additional resources generated by the NCAA Basketball Tournament and other NCAA revenues,” Delany said.

The new model expands the board to include more presidents, a student-athlete representative, a faculty representative, athletics director and female administrator. A new body called the Council, which would oversee the division’s daily operations, was also created.

The restructuring allows the 65 schools in the nation’s top five conferences – the Atlantic Coast, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and Southeastern – to make rules within the 11 “areas of autonomy” by Oct. 1. The proposed legislation could be overridden in 60 days if 75 schools outside of the five conferences request that. But the proposed changes – should everything go as planned – could take effect by the middle of 2015.

Some Rutgers faculty and staff questioned the apparent expansion of the power of college athletics departments, particularly as Rutgers’ faculty union has been critical of the university’s subsidizing of its athletics department — not unusual among Division I schools.

“We approach the NCAA’s decision, which claims to be in the best interests of athletes, with trepidation and a desire to learn more about its impact on student athletes, our budget and Rutgers’ academic mission,” Deepa Kumar, secretary of Rutgers’ faculty and staff union, Rutgers AAUP-AFT, said in an email.

Andrew Zimbalist, a sports economist at Smith College, said the legislation is a “step in the right direction” toward giving players more health and safety benefits – plus stipends — but it is not a panacea.

For example, athletic enterprises continue to trumpet academic pursuits, he said. And there still is no mechanism to control coaches’ salaries, he added.

“Coaches are being paid for the contribution that the athletes made,” Zimbalist said.

The legislation could make NCAA governance “messy,” he cautioned. The 65 schools in the top five conferences will be able to put more resources toward recruiting the best athletes nationwide, concentrating the best athletes in those select schools, he said.

This could hurt Rutgers, which has yet to establish itself in the Big Ten after leaving the Big East, he said.

“Rutgers won’t be able to afford to keep up with the other schools with the good athletics,” Zimbalist said.

Rutgers’ head football coach, Kyle Flood, said Thursday after practice that the changes would help not only the conference but also Rutgers as it enters one of the top athletic conferences.

“Having a seat in one of the big five conferences is where you want to be,” Flood said. “If you want to recruit the best players and you want to play at the highest level, then you need to be in one of those conferences.”

Football coach Greg Toal of Don Bosco, whose program routinely sends players to Division I colleges, said Thursday’s development gives schools within the power conferences, like Rutgers, a leg up in recruiting.

“One school’s going to give you a lot more financial help,” Toal said. “That’s a huge advantage. Those power conferences will have a huge advantage over those other schools. A lot of Division I football players, a lot of them don’t have the money.”

Football coach Nunzio Campanile of Bergen Catholic said giving the power conferences greater autonomy is a good idea, as long as it doesn’t have a negative effect on the schools outside of that group.

“The downside is how it affects the other schools that can’t compete financially,” Campanile said. “I’d hate to see less scholarships out there.”

For Seton Hall and the rest of the Big East Conference, which is not part of the big five group, neither the school nor conference will be affected negatively, Seton Hall athletic director Pat Lyons said.

“We’ll make sure we’ll never be put at a recruiting disadvantage in basketball,” Lyons said of his university. “Our goal is to attract the best student-athletes we can and we will always do that.”

The Big East and other conferences will have the option to offer the same benefits to student-athletes as the big five power conferences, though they will not be required to do so. If the Big East decides not to opt in, it could put a school like Seton Hall at a recruiting disadvantage in pursuing men’s basketball players, especially when rival Rutgers is now part of the Big Ten.

But that won’t be the case, according to people at Seton Hall. The Big East has the wherewithal because it signed a 12-year rights deal with Fox Sports in March 2013. The entire contract is reported to be worth more than $500 million, and Fox certainly doesn’t want the Big East’s basketball product to become second-rate.

“It’s a defining moment for college athletics,” said Lyons, a former athletic director at Iona, his alma mater. He said he was worried about the impact the changes will have upon mid-major schools.

This legislation, he said, will “widen the gap” between the power conferences and the rest of the Division I schools.

As Rutgers University prepares to start its first season in the Big Ten athletic conference – one of the five largest conferences in college sports – the National Collegiate Athletic Association on Thursday overwhelmingly approved an overhaul of its governing structure, giving more power to those select schools.

The NCAA’s Division I board of directors, in a 16-2 vote, restructured how schools and conferences will be governed. The legislation also proposes changes that could pave the way for more money to be funneled into college sports and change how student-athletes are recruited and managed.

“This is a significant first step toward our ability to adapt the collegiate model to the changing times,” Rutgers Athletic Director Julie Hermann said in a statement. “Presidents, athletic directors and faculty athletic representatives now get to roll up our sleeves and do the deep dive required to develop 21st-century best practices for the student-athletes we serve.”

The changes come at a time when calls are getting louder for student-athletes to reap more financial benefits from the major money-making sports programs, when some conference commissioners are suggesting that their organizations might drop out of the NCAA and when the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that football players at Northwestern University can form a union.

“This is a seminal moment in the history of intercollegiate sports,” said Paul Finebaum of ESPN, whose book “My Conference Can Beat Your Conference: Why the SEC Still Rules College Football” was published this week. “The NCAA has become a shell of its former self.”

The legislation passed Thursday outlines 11 “areas of autonomy” in which the conferences can make rules, among them athletes’ meals and nutrition plans, off-season practice times, scholarship and financial aid, and miscellaneous expenses for recruiting and family campus visits.

Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said in a statement that the vote will start the process of addressing numerous student-athlete issues.

“The new governance structure preserves the many traditions of Division I athletics while directly impacting all student-athletes competing at that level who will benefit from improved academic, health and safety initiatives resulting from the additional resources generated by the NCAA Basketball Tournament and other NCAA revenues,” Delany said.

The new model expands the board to include more presidents, a student-athlete representative, a faculty representative, athletics director and female administrator. A new body called the Council, which would oversee the division’s daily operations, was also created.

The restructuring allows the 65 schools in the nation’s top five conferences – the Atlantic Coast, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and Southeastern – to make rules within the 11 “areas of autonomy” by Oct. 1. The proposed legislation could be overridden in 60 days if 75 schools outside of the five conferences request that. But the proposed changes – should everything go as planned – could take effect by the middle of 2015.

Some Rutgers faculty and staff questioned the apparent expansion of the power of college athletics departments, particularly as Rutgers’ faculty union has been critical of the university’s subsidizing of its athletics department — not unusual among Division I schools.

“We approach the NCAA’s decision, which claims to be in the best interests of athletes, with trepidation and a desire to learn more about its impact on student athletes, our budget and Rutgers’ academic mission,” Deepa Kumar, secretary of Rutgers’ faculty and staff union, Rutgers AAUP-AFT, said in an email.

Andrew Zimbalist, a sports economist at Smith College, said the legislation is a “step in the right direction” toward giving players more health and safety benefits – plus stipends — but it is not a panacea.

For example, athletic enterprises continue to trumpet academic pursuits, he said. And there still is no mechanism to control coaches’ salaries, he added.

“Coaches are being paid for the contribution that the athletes made,” Zimbalist said.

The legislation could make NCAA governance “messy,” he cautioned. The 65 schools in the top five conferences will be able to put more resources toward recruiting the best athletes nationwide, concentrating the best athletes in those select schools, he said.

This could hurt Rutgers, which has yet to establish itself in the Big Ten after leaving the Big East, he said.

“Rutgers won’t be able to afford to keep up with the other schools with the good athletics,” Zimbalist said.

Rutgers’ head football coach, Kyle Flood, said Thursday after practice that the changes would help not only the conference but also Rutgers as it enters one of the top athletic conferences.

“Having a seat in one of the big five conferences is where you want to be,” Flood said. “If you want to recruit the best players and you want to play at the highest level, then you need to be in one of those conferences.”

Football coach Greg Toal of Don Bosco, whose program routinely sends players to Division I colleges, said Thursday’s development gives schools within the power conferences, like Rutgers, a leg up in recruiting.

“One school’s going to give you a lot more financial help,” Toal said. “That’s a huge advantage. Those power conferences will have a huge advantage over those other schools. A lot of Division I football players, a lot of them don’t have the money.”

Football coach Nunzio Campanile of Bergen Catholic said giving the power conferences greater autonomy is a good idea, as long as it doesn’t have a negative effect on the schools outside of that group.

“The downside is how it affects the other schools that can’t compete financially,” Campanile said. “I’d hate to see less scholarships out there.”

For Seton Hall and the rest of the Big East Conference, which is not part of the big five group, neither the school nor conference will be affected negatively, Seton Hall athletic director Pat Lyons said.